I was highly amused recently when reading an article in the Times by restaurant critic Giles Coren entitled, 'Damn all architects, the rich man's folly', which concluded with the line, 'the first thing we do, let's kill all the architects.'
As you can imagine, the profession got all in a twist and self-righteous at the provocative article. Its basis was actually a good question though: do architects add any value to a project and why don’t projects get delivered to budget?
Architects are the key ingredient in our building industry that turn simple buildings into a piece of architecture that we can appreciate and enjoy. Their skill is in taking a brief and turning this into a three-dimensional vision which can be built, serviced, and used through its lifespan.
The architect must deal with planning laws, materials selection, environmental and energy use, building regulations compliance, buildability, contract law, builders – all to simply get the building constructed.
Yes, it is complex, and it relies on the architect liaising with a vast number of other professionals and builders to create the desired solution.
Architects add value by their nature of thinking both outside the box and inside the box, linking all the thousands of elements that need to be considered when building. Of course, everyone is welcome to try and do this without this professional help, but can anyone simply pick up a pencil or operate the CAD package and get it right, first time?
So, architects do add value, both in measurable ways, as well as the subjective, intangible value of health, light and the creation of enjoyable building experiences.
The biggest gripe of Mr Coren is on budgeting and his perception that all projects go over budget. We are all used to seeing the TV architecture shows where clients’ dreams crumble in the reality of spiralling costs and blunders.
Most of these people are picked because they don’t have the right team of quantity surveyors, architects and builders in place. The media love a good failure rather than boring, straight forward success. The conclusion is invariably that the design isn’t over budget, simply that a budget was wrong or wasn’t created at the beginning to reflect the aspiration – Rolls Royce ambition on a Ford Focus budget!
So, what is good value? In the last few years, the building trade has experienced materials cost increases and lack of availability in materials due to the pandemic, Brexit and the Ukraine conflict. This has increased the cost of building along with the market being remarkably busy, combining to create the perception of poor value.
So, to build to a budget today, realism must be the key – in the budget, programme and design. Yes, people can get it wrong including architects. But the vast majority get it right with the correct preparation, the right team and right skilled builders.
An architect is not a ‘rich man’s folly ‘, in fact quite the opposite. The architect will add value and expertise helping to create the right solution for the right budget. On this basis alone I suggest we let architects, like myself, live on and design more lovely buildings. As to the value of a food critic…well that’s a more complex question!
